Klosterman Baking Co., Cincinnati, was acquired by private equity firm New Water Capital in 2022, but the bakery’s customer-first mindset continues. Kevin Stevens, retired customer and business lead and vice president of engineering, Klosterman Baking, noted that the bakery operates transparently with team members to quickly respond to customer needs. 

“We’ve involved a lot of people from process and production with our customers,” Mr. Stevens explained. “We’re openly sharing day-to-day what we can do to improve quality and meet customer needs. We’re quick to react to any customer issues because response time is so important. But if there’s a customer concern or an ideation, our sales team brings it to us, and things change very quickly.”  

This mindset drove the success Klosterman Baking has seen in the past few years, with the company more than doubling its business. With a commitment from a major customer, Klosterman Baking Co. built a new bakery in Hebron, Ky., that opened in 2019 and was featured in the August 2019 issue of Baking & Snack.

“That was a huge feat, and I’m proud of each person who contributed to the long days and hours, trials and errors, and pains of that startup,” Mr. Stevens said. “While no startup is ever without problems, we got through it, and the end result has enabled us to better serve our customers while providing solid jobs in the Cincinnati/northern Kentucky area.”

The 200,000-square-foot bakery houses three lines for bread, buns and donuts, and soon will serve as the new headquarters for Klosterman Baking Co. as the company continues to grow. Such an immense project certainly required an all-hands-on-deck mentality, but Dale Easdon, chief executive officer, Klosterman Baking, notes that Mr. Stevens’ experience, leadership and expertise were critical to the success of the bakery. 

“When you’re investing the millions of dollars necessary to build the Hebron facility for a strategic customer, it includes the sourcing of equipment, leadership, a marketing campaign, procurement, supply chain, the whole scope of project management,” he said. “Hebron is a perfect example of a project so large that it touches every aspect of the company. It’s a flagship bakery that Kevin can be very proud of because he built it with all of his skill set.”

Since New Water Capital acquired Klosterman Baking Co., Mr. Stevens has used that skill set to help get the company’s six bakeries fully optimized. The company’s new Chief Operating Officer Brent Taylor, whom Mr. Stevens was fully involved in recruiting, will take over these projects upon Mr. Stevens’ retirement. 

“We have many projects underway right now, things that will improve and upgrade existing equipment and product lines in many of our bakeries,” Mr. Stevens said. “We are also working on a few larger projects that would increase line capacity in multiple plants.” 

As vice president of engineering, he has also worked to pivot the company’s maintenance mentality from a reactive place to a proactive place. First, it was critical to ensure the maintenance teams were fully staffed. Then Mr. Stevens and his team could create maintenance programs that were focused on using data to implement preventative maintenance and keep lines up and running. He has also implemented a zoning plan, where different maintenance teams are responsible for different areas of each bakery, so there’s no question about ownership each day.

“The key has been getting the right people in place and then driving our maintenance programs to be focused on downtime events and creating lines that run efficiently every day,” Mr. Stevens said. 

Making this shift has required training to ensure the culture sticks.  

“We’ve been focused on building a culture that says, ‘It’s our job to keep the equipment running,’ and that has to trickle down all the way to the technicians,” said Kyle Ray, director of engineering, Klosterman Baking Co.

Mr. Stevens added that training is a top priority not just for maintenance but across all aspects of Klosterman.

This article is an excerpt from the December 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Operations Executive of the Year, click here.